10/04/2026
๐ฆ๐ขโฆ ๐ง๐๐๐งโ๐ฆ ๐ช๐๐ฌ ๐โ๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ค๐จ๐๐๐ง. ๐ฅ
If youโve noticed Iโve been mostly MIA from Proof & Petals for the last few days, apparently October decided I needed a little more character development.
Our house caught fire Thursday night.
Chris and I were asleep downstairs while our friend Milana, who had been staying with us before PCSing, was still awake upstairs with Teddy. She heard the bathroom vent crash, Teddy started barking, and eventually the commotion woke us up.
What initially looked like something Chris had managed to put out very quickly turned out to be an electrical fire. The smell was wrong, lights in different parts of the house had lost power, and once I saw where the fire appeared to have started, I knew something wasnโt right. We called 911, and I am incredibly glad we did. The fire department confirmed the electrical fire and shut power off to portions of the house while everything was assessed.
The part I cannot stop thinking about is that our smoke alarm never went off.
We were asleep.
Had Milana not been awake and heard something crash, had Teddy not started barking, and had she not gotten scared enough to wake us, I genuinely donโt know when we would have realized what was happening.
Everyone is okay. Moose and Teddy are okay. Our house is still standing.
The bathroom is decidedly less okay. ๐
It has been a strange few days. There is something about standing outside your house surrounded by fire trucks that rearranges the importance of whatever you were worrying about five hours earlier. Iโm grateful to be here, a little rattled, very tired, and probably going to be processing the whole thing for a while.
And because one major life event at a time would be boring, I also had a full wedding installation this weekend. So I went briefly MIA while bouncing between fire damage, electricians, wedding florals, cake flowers, cleanup, adrenaline, and dropping Milana off at the airport this morning for the beginning of her move.
October is going great. ๐
But if there is one thing I want you to take from my oversharing, it is this:
๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ฆ.
Not eventually. Actually test them.
Ours was there. That did not mean it worked when we needed it.
And if something feels wrong after a fire, especially anything electrical, call someone. The visible flames being gone does not necessarily mean the problem is gone.
I think that is the part I keep coming back to. How ordinary the night was right up until it wasnโt. How quickly everything I had been thinking about that day got rearranged. How many things had to happen exactly the way they did for all of us to end up sitting outside that house together instead of this becoming a very different story.
I donโt really know what to do with that yet.
I know Iโm grateful. I know Iโm tired. I know dropping Milana off at the airport this morning after everything that happened made an already emotional goodbye feel even stranger. I know Iโve spent the last few days bouncing between wedding flowers, fire damage, cleanup, adrenaline, and trying to wrap my head around the fact that we are all still here.
So if Iโve been quiet, thatโs why.
Iโm not disappearing. Iโm just catching up with my own life a little.
Proof & Petals is still here.
Iโm still here.
My people are still here.
And after the last few days, I donโt think Iโm taking any of that quite as casually as I did before.
